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Last Updated: Dec 22nd, 2007 - 08:39:55 |
Llama and Alpaca
Vaccination and Parasite Control
VACCINATIONS:
The first workshop for vets on llama medicine was held in Santa Cruz, California in June 1984. Besides Dr. Fowler, two main speakers were Dr. Nancy East, an instructor of sheep herd medicine at U.C. Davis, and Kay Patterson (Sharpnack) because of Kay's large llama herd in Sisters, Oregon. It was very basic and many llama owners now know more than what we learned at this first introduction to llama care.
Since then, understanding of llama and alpaca (L&A) medicine has increased more than 20 times to the point where Dr. Fowler's new book (Blue Book) is 550 pages. Previous problems in nutrition, reproduction, surgery, cria care as well as most areas of general care have been overcome because of research at vet schools and field experience of private vets.
One of the areas where there is no consensus among all the vets that work with L&A's is about vaccinations. There is a wide difference of opinion on which diseases protection is needed as well as the dose and timing. What makes the difference is the benefit/risk analysis by the owner and the vet. The benefit or need is based on how much of a chance the animal has of getting a certain disease. The risk is based on the extra cost and if the vaccine will do any damage to the animal. After discussing several areas of disagreement on vaccinations, I will share the program at my ranch which I use on all the L&A that I care for.
A good example of disagreement would be protection for clostridium diseases where 7 different bacteria can cause 8 separate diseases. Some of these bacteria are normal flora in animal intestines and the rest are in the form of spores that can be in the soil for years just about anywhere where livestock live. The problem with the clostridium group is that they produce toxins that will be expensive to treat or are fatal. Most L&A vets agree that our animals need protection from Clostridium perfringens type C & D, and C_ tetani (C/D+T). The major difference of opinion is about the other four clostridium in the group. Many vets would say these are too rare to worry about so why bother. I would agree they are rare, probably less than 15 cases a year here in the U.S. which works out to about 1 in every 8,000 animals. Would you fly in an airliner where 1 out of every 8,000 crashed? Would you want an airbag in your car if you knew you would be in a head-on crash once in every 8,000 miles?
I'm happy to say I have never seen any of these diseases in animals I care for but then I have always used 8-way vaccine. I hear about dead L&A where the lab proved it was clostridium several times each year. I would guess a lot of the animals that were found dead or died within a few days of getting sick, get buried and the cause never is known.
For the risk on the 8-way vaccination, the cost is the same as for C/D+T. What many owners and some vets worry about is the negative effects of the 8-way. When I tried to track down "reactions", many followed a 5cc cattle dose instead of the 2cc or 1cc that should be used unless you have a 1,000 pound llama or alpaca. Some of the reactions happened when the owner failed to shake the 8-way container before withdrawing the dose to be given. The vaccine is a suspension of dead bacteria that tend to settle to the bottom so if the person vaccinating just draws clear liquid off the top, it will be an under dose. When they get to the thick stuff at the bottom, it can be 4 to 5 times too concentrated. Sometimes I have a hard time showing this separation to owners because as soon as I pick up any vaccine or other injectable like penicillin, I automatically shake it several times without thinking.
Some of the 8-way "reactions" happened a long time ago when some llamas were not well trained and had to be chased to be "captured" for an injection. After a long run on a hot day even an injection of distilled water might cause an abortion within 2 days. I don't vaccinate during hot weather so summer vaccinations (rare for me) would be early morning or after 6 PM. I make sure we have enough manpower or facilities so that very little chasing is needed. I use as small a needle as possible (usually 22g) to put the vaccine under the skin and not intramuscular, which hurts more.
Most L&A vets and owners don't vaccinate for E.coli because they say they haven't had a cria die from this disease yet. When I ask if they have a state lab do the necropsy and run cultures, they usually say they don't bother. Besides cria septicemia, E.coli also causes many uterine infections and mastitis. With cria septicemia, I would guess that several out of every 100 crias gets sick from this common bacteria that is found in every animal. A very few survive if enough of the correct antibiotic (not penicillin) is used quickly but most die within 24 hours after the infection starts. Many of the vets that phone me about the product and dose I use usually do right after a death from E.coli.
Because E.coli is a problem after breeding, during pregnancy and in newborn crias, I give the 1cc vaccination to females in pre-breeding and pre-natal situations. In the summer of 1998 we had a gelding on our ranch that died from E.coli nephritis (kidney infection). We were lucky it wasn't one of our 5 studs. Since then all males get 1cc E.coli vaccine yearly.
Rabies - Just ask Dr. David Pugh how much he enjoyed the rabies treatment he had to take after he was bitten by a llama in the Auburn University herd that had rabies. If your vet says there is no rabies vaccine labeled for llamas, have him read Dr. Fowler's "Blue Book" or phone me about IMRAB 3/RABVAC3. Some states have very little problems with rabies in wildlife (less than 10 yearly) while other states have many hundreds of cases each year so like selling real estate, location is everything.
Leptospirosis is a bacteria found in contaminated water and here in central California, I look for dairy cows or feeder dairy calves as a source. While lepto can do damage to the liver or kidneys, the most common problem is abortion in unvaccinated females. Your vet should know the risk in your area and don't be surprised if he/she recommends several boosters a year to maintain protective levels of immunity. Because of the many different types of lepto, it is important to use vaccine matched to the type of lepto in the area where your animal is kept.
PARASITE CONTROL
There are more parasite control programs than there are L&A ranches. While a few ranches need no control programs, most need to do something a couple times a year and a few need to do something every month. Much more than infectious disease, parasites are effected by the environment (temperature and moisture) as well as animal husbandry (animal stocking rate, manure and pasture management). Parasites are either internal which are harder to control or external which as you will see, have become very easy to deal with.
Internal parasites are separated into nematodes (roundworms) of the gastrointestinal (Gl) tract, liver flukes, tapeworms and a nasty little worm in the Eastern United States called the Meningeal Worm.
NEMATODES:
Dr. Fowler's books (pink, blue or Alpaca) have all the fancy big names but if you are treating for one, the medicine will treat them all. Instead of trying to describe all the possible programs, I will review some of the most common mistakes I come across. Nematode eggs in fecal pellets need several days of moderate to hot weather to develop into larva which crawl up a moist blade of grass hoping to be eaten by the next grazing animal.
1. Normally L&A don't need nematode control in the winter or when it is bone dry (California summers)
2. Use a weed-eater to trim the grass around dung piles very short to keep animals from grazing as well as let it dry out from more sunlight exposure which kills larva
3. Most worming products fail very badly if under dosed. If you don't have ranch scales either make a visit with your animals once a year to a ranch that does or help out on a work day where L&A are getting weighed. After watching 10 or so, you can get fairly close when guessing but plan for 10-20% higher for worming treatment.
4. I like injectable because the dose I select stays in the animal. Guessing how much of the white paste gets spit onto the ground makes me wonder how effective the treatment will be. You should all take a dab of Panacur and taste it. Like most L&A, you will be trying to put whatever is in your mouth on to the ground as quickly as possible. I know a lot of you don't like needles but it's not like you are the one with the worms. If I do use a paste (see Tapeworm below) the product SAFE-GUARD is the same as PANACUR but is apple-cinnamon flavor and sometimes less expensive.
5. Many owners ask me to worm their animal because I'm around but I run a fecal flotation test that shows no nematodes.
6. Other owners say they don't worry about worms because the animal was just treated and when I run a fecal test it is full of worm eggs. Usually from underdosing but also possible resistance if the same wormer was used too many times in a row. Vets don't agree whether to use the same product until resistance shows up before changing or change frequently to keep the worms guessing.
7. I have used IVOMEC since 1985 and it has worked fine when dosed correctly. In 1998 a new injectable came on the market, DECTOMAX, which sounded like it would do a good job. Dr. David Pugh at Auburn U. ran some field trials that year which showed it did everything he could expect.
8. I don't have a lot of experience with "pour-ons" but they work if the product gets on the skin - not just on top of the fiber. Again, don't underdose and follow the directions. (2005) More recent studies show "pour-ons" usually don't reach effective blood levels in llamas and alpacas.
9. Some of the worst cases of nematodes in L&A I have seen were pastured with sheep and goats that usually have real bad bathroom habits. Be extra careful when your L&A are around other ruminants.
LIVER FLUKES:
Found in moist areas with moderate temperature where snails live. If you have liver flukes you should be using IVOMEC PLUS regularly if snails are out. If you don't know if they are in your area ask a large animal vet, old sheep herder or ag extension office. Migrating fluke larva do damage depending on how many there are but more important they transport spores of some of the clostridium bacteria which is why I like the 8-way vaccine in case my animals travel to a fluke area.
TAPEWORMS:
Flat ribbon lengths of tapeworm or small segments like a 1/4-1/2" flat noodle are found on fecal pellets. Usually the hardest part is figuring out which L&A to treat. Tapeworms in L&A come from eating a grass mite while grazing and because they don't do any measurable damage, it's not worth treating the whole herd. IVOMEC or Dectomax are not going to work so that is where I use Safe- Guard paste.
MENINGEAL WORM:
I'm very happy my own herd is not where there are white-tailed deer which is the normal host of this worm. Deer are not affected but eggs passed in the pellets are ingested by snails. When the snail is accidentally eaten by an L or A, the worm gets lost in the abnormal host and migrates up and down the spinal cord. Vets who have looked at these damaged spinal cords said it looked like someone used an ice-pick hundreds of times. Prevention depends on monthly (30 day) injections of IVOMEC. Of course some owners tried every 35 days which worked OK but everyone who let it go 42 days had L&A go down with major spinal cord damage. Dr. Pugh thinks Dectomax works as well as Ivomec and I know reports on pour-on wormers have not been good.
External parasites would include lice, flies, ticks and I guess we will put eyeworms here also. For 12 years I used SEVIN (rose powder) sprinkled on animals that had or were suspected of having lice. Butt rubbing against a fence or chewing at the tailhead would bring out the shaker can and 2-4oz was spread from head to rump along the midline. Now I use something I think is better that I will share with you in the next part on flies.
FLIES:
I can tell you L&A don't like to be sprayed out of a pump bottle even if it smells good to me. In the past trying to mist on fly repellent required frequent feed treats and sneak attacks until they became so spray shy they wouldn't let me get within 20 feet even with open hands to prove my innocence. In 1996 I came across an ad for a pour-on fly control for cattle called CyLence. It's not absorbed into the body but stays on the surface (there go the lice) so it's safe to use on milking dairy cows. In considering a new product, I consider the safety on my animals, the effectiveness on my ranch (not just in the ad), cost and ease of application.
First I used CyLence on our geldings, then all the males, then females and finally crias. Adults (over 200 Ibs) got 6cc put on the back of their head because we were trying to control face flies and other ear biting gnats. Animals 100-200 Ibs got 4cc; 50-100 Ibs got 2cc and under 50 Ibs got 1cc. Now after two seasons and sharing this with several other ranches, I feel it is very safe. It would keep flies off the face and ears for about 1 month at a cost of 20 to 25 cents for adults per dose. We would move 10-12 animals at a time into an alley way where as assistant would put one arm around the neck and gently hold one ear to hold the head steady. After filling a 12cc syringe from the pint bottle, I would put '/2 (6cc) on the back of one head and then we would catch another for the other half. We could do 3-5 small ones from the one syringe.
The bottle of CyLence says it is 1 % active ingredient and 99% inert something. I think that 99% is acetone so I'm careful not to slosh it forward onto the Ls or As, assistant or my face. If you wanted to wear rubber gloves, fine but I just ooze it onto the skin slowly without splashing. One of my clients brushed against where she had put the CyLence and then rubbed her cheek which turned red and felt warm for a few minutes. (2002 update) The 99% inert part turns out to be toluene not acetone. (See LANA 2000 Medical Update)
TICKS:
I don't know how well CyLence works on ticks but I suspect it will work great because it is related to two of the best pet flea and tick spot-on products now available. I'm hoping field reports get back to me this summer so I can be more certain that it will work as well as I expect. (2000) 2cc CyLence on each leg stopped all ticks for a month.
EYEWORMS:
A normal parasite of black-tail deer in Central California and is spread from one animal to the next by face flies. Every once in a while a near-sighted fly will put the worm eggs in an L or A (or any other mammal) which develops into the 1/2cm white worms that swim on the surface of the eye. The most noticeable effect is a "runny eye" and about half the time they are in both eyes. Because it is more of a problem at the end of the summer fly season, I start looking for a foxtail under the eyelid only to find eyeworms. The quick and easy treatment is 1 or 2 drops of IVOMEC out of a syringe without a needle. I use to worry about the tearing this caused but it only lasts for a short time and helps flush the dying worms out. Eye medicine might be needed if there is a secondary bacterial infection or corneal ulcer from rubbing because of the irritation.
Our vaccination program has changed several times since 1985 and will probably change again as new information comes to light. There are three different age groups:
1. Juveniles (3 weeks to 1 year)
2. Non-pregnant adults (males and females)
3. Pregnant females
JUVENILES:
Most vets agree that crias needed vaccinations with the only question being when and for which diseases. We give 2cc of "Covexin8" at 3 weeks, a 2cc booster at 7 weeks old and another 2cc booster at weaning. We start at 3 weeks because this is when the mother's immunity that was passed to the cria in the colostrum has just about run out. Starting vaccinations anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks would work but I really feel the vets that recommend starting at 6 months are leaving a large window of possible infection. I use "Covexin8" that protects for eight different clostridium instead of only two or three in C/D or C/D + T. It's like full coverage insurance instead of only one or two kinds of loss. I know that 5cc (the cattle dose) will make some llamas and probably some alpacas fairly sore so I use the sheep booster dose.
As a California Vet that’s handled a lot of wildlife, I've always kept rabies and it's prevention on my worry list. I predicted in 1985 that we would see llamas in the U.S. getting rabies and so far there have been 6 known cases. The alpaca population in the U.S. is only 10% of the llamas but they are just as much at risk if left unvaccinated . Here is one place all the vets agree and that is that 1cc of "Imrab3" be given each year. Your vet can tell you the most common wildlife carrier of rabies in your area. Whichever animal it is, if it's doing flip-flops in your pasture, your camelids are sure to stick their nose in to check it out. Crias get their first rabies vaccination at 8 weeks old and then yearly boosters.
Some areas have a problem with leptospirosis which is a bacteria found in contaminated water. There are 5 different types so the vaccine is called lepto-5 and an infection causes either kidney damage or abortions in pregnant females. Try to get the brand that has a 2cc dose instead of 5cc. Your vet will know about your area and remember about animals traveling to other areas for breeding or training at a ranch. This is not something they would get at a show or sale.
NON-PREGNANT ADULTS:
2cc "Covexin 8" and 1cc "Imrab 3" yearly
If we have the chance to give these a week or more apart, we will because theoretically the level of immunity would be higher when the immune system responds to them separately. Sometimes the recatching of untrained animals is so stressful that they get the "works" when we are able to catch them. (See LANA 2000 Medical Update)
PREGNANT FEMALES:
This is where most of the changes have been. The vaccinations have been moved back from the delivery, changed to the non-pregnant window between birth and breeding, changed from 8 way to a 2 way and then back but a smaller dose. The goal was to get the most immunity in the female just before having the cria but with the least amount of stress on her body. I could spend pages talking about experiences of other vets and myself but I'm happiest with the current program. 1cc of "Covexin8 at about 9 1/2 months after the pregnancy starts gives a big boost to the immunity without too much stress. All the negative reports were with a 5cc dose usually and the 2cc dose once in a great while.
E. coli has been one of the main causes of neonatal mortality in the first 3 weeks from reports of case histories at UCD and what is in print. E. coli is also the major cause of uterine infections after delivery. I started using E. coli bacterin vaccine in the first large group of breeding females because that was their major problem. The vaccine I have been using is Schering's "Piliguard E. Coli-1" and I give 1cc a few days after the 1cc "Covexin8" at about 6 weeks before the "earliest due date" which is 10 months after the last breeding.
These females get their rabies a few days after giving birth as soon as we are sure that she doesn't have any infection from the delivery.
(Summer 2005) Last year Shearing "improved" their Piliguard E coli by adding four cattle viruses to it. I switched to a product from Novantis called "Bovine Pili Shield" which is more concentrated so llamas get a 1/2 cc dose and alpacas get 1/4 cc dose.
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